A Tale of Two Cains: Media Harasses Herman Cain Like They Did John McCain

Whether because of the strength of his candidacy or simply because nobody likes Mitt and Rick, Herman Cain is leading the Republican pack. Now, he is being accused of having been a sexual harasser. Citing “anonymous sources” an article on Politico.com seeks to derail the Cain Train.

And in leveling these charges Politico.com also says “We’re just not going to get into the details of exactly what happened.”

Why does this sound a lot like accusations that John McCain, former Republican presidential candidate, had an affair with a lobbyist? The story was reported in the New York Times. Vicki Iseman, the woman in question, sued for defamation.

The New York Times settled out of court:

The suit, filed by Vicki L. Iseman, the Washington lobbyist, was settled without payment and The Times did not retract the article. In an unusual agreement, however, The Times is letting Ms. Iseman’s lawyers give their views on the suit on the paper’s Web site.

The New York Times issues this pathetic excuse of an “apology” after they settled the lawsuit:

An article published on February 21, 2008, about Senator John McCain and his record as an ethics reformer who was at times blind to potential conflicts of interest included references to Vicki Iseman, a Washington lobbyist. The article did not state, and The Times did not intend to conclude, that Ms. Iseman had engaged in a romantic affair with Senator McCain or an unethical relationship on behalf of her clients in breach of the public trust.

Does the original article by the New York Times not suggest something?

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

Before the suit was settled, Left Wing media outlets like the Huffington Post ran headlines like this:

John McCain Affair? Links To Female Lobbyist Exposed

And thus we are seeing the same pattern emerge regarding Herman Cain.

Should we call this accusation Racist?

The problem with accusations of sexual harassment is that most often the accusers’ identities are withheld. In the case of these two women, they are bound by a confidentiality agreement because they received money from the National Restaurant Association to leave their positions.

At this point it is unclear who authorized the payments (and why) but the fact that they were paid to “go away” could cause problems for Mr. Cain as the “4th Estate” diligently investigates.

Unlike the last famous person to be accused of harassment (Dominique Strauss-Khan) there is no indication that Mr. Cain has any skeletons lurking in his closet.

The media, of course, ignored all harassment charges against Bill Clinton and John Edwards so I’m not very trusting of their independence in matters of political scrutiny and Herman Cain’s inexperience running a political campaign isn’t helping.

Just as the media wanted a black man to win the presidency over a woman they don’t want a Republican black man to run against Obama.

We will be following this story closely in the coming weeks but, more likely than not, the result will be smear on page 1, correction on page 43.

And, for full disclosure, I donated $50.00 to Mr. Cain’s campaign but I would never let this fact interfere with my judgement.

It is going to be interesting to watch this play out, and it is even more interesting to see how quickly the media jumped on this story with little facts and unconfirmed rumors when they gave John Edwards such a pass in light of all the evidence.Steve Dennis recently posted..Power is back on

I don’t like this hatchet job one little bit. (Politico’s, not yours, Harrison.) Who knows how this is going to play out and what information will be revealed in the coming days, but I personally think it is shameful how the media is so ready and willing to report such a story. They have no concrete evidence, but they run with it anyway. I think it’s pretty clear what their motives are. Even though I am supporting Ron Paul, I want this race to be about the issues and how to solve them, instead of any kind of dirt that can be dredged up, true or not.LD Jackson recently posted..An Appeal To Ron Paul Supporters

I’m hearing that Cain’s campaign got more donations yesterday than they had on any other single day. We all saw what was done to Governor Palin and I think it’s going to backfire this time. I don’t believe, for one minute, that Cain is guilty of sexual harrassment and I’m a woman. It hurts women who HAVE BEEN the victim of REAL sexual harrassment when there are false accusations,like this, made.M LaChance recently posted..Herman Cain Takes On Political Correctness